Web-based training in Taiwan

Abstract

The use of Internet is dramatically rising in organizations for various purposes such as communication, researches, and training. Web-based training (WBT) is a new training method, where instructional material is delivered via the World Wide Web. WBT is an anytime-anywhere training method, which is the only way to bring new and current employees up to speed on new information and technologies without spending a lot of time and money in the process. WBT is increasingly used as a new training method in the United States and Europe, due to the long distance between branches. However, WBT is still a novel concept for most Asian countries. This study is to examine companies in Taiwan, an Asian country of narrow domain but with lots of high-tech industries, on their training capabilities, current implementations, plans, and attitudes that pertain to WBT. A mail survey was conducted for collecting the data for this study. One hundred and sixty-two questionnaires were sent to companies located in Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP), and ninety-one completed and valid questionnaires were returned throughout this study. The overall response rate was 56 percent. From the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the companies that located in HSIP plan to implement WBT in the near future. They have capacity to adapt WBT based on both capable hardware and software and also the popular usage of the Internet. The implementation of WBT is not yet popular in Taiwan; however, according to the interest of the respondents, we can predict a trend towards the usage of WBT on account of its convenience, immediateness, and consistency.